I mentioned in an earlier blog the story of Benazir Bhutto. She was fighting to re-establish the rule of democracy in her country which had been taken over by a ruthless military regime. When her party supporters got news she was arrested, some began to jostle for leadership, some were bribed to abandon her party, some tortured to make false accusations against her. Many of them were cowed into silence till there was no one to champion her cause while she was in prison.Not so for Paul. If something worse happened to him, Paul did not want that to be end of the witness of the gospel. Hence his strong admonition to the Philippian Church: “whatever happens to me (either to be released or killed), conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”. Let us face this as a question: Can todays Christians always be counted upon to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ no matter what?
When we hear of suffering, we often imagine crucifixion, or being thrown to wild animals in the Roman games. It is that far-removed experience of early Christians, and if we too lived at the time, we would suffer and die for Christ as they did. Or so we imagine. We might think of suffering Christians in communist countries and imagine we too would be victorious if we were in their shoes. But, do you ever stop to think what suffering means for you in this day and age, living in Kenya as it is? Let me tell you a sad story but all too familiar story.
There is a woman in my neighborhood who was a committed, spiritually gifted Christian for many years, very involved in her church since her youth. She is endowed with the kind of physical beauty that turns heads. In her late twenties she suffered two terrible betrayals. Her engagement to one man was called off on the eve of the wedding when he cheated on her. A few years later her second fiancé was killed in a car accident just some months to their wedding. Now she is well into her thirties. She got desperate. She slept with a man who is not her husband. She is pregnant and unmarried. Her pain over the loss of her fiancés is still very real, but on top of that she has added the confusion of betraying what was a very strong relationship with the Lord. Soon she will have the added burden of single motherhood.
Paul says “It has been appointed for us not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him…” vs 29. I wouldn’t wish to trivialize the issue, but suffering is still real to any Christians, anywhere. That is because we have chosen to live according to values of the kingdom of God. By so doing we are up against the devil who prowls all over looking for victims. He long figured that physical torture will not always cause Christians to abandon their faith in God. He devised subtle ways of making Christians suffer, but to us they assume faces like betrayal, denial or deprivation. How often we fall in his traps!
Our call is to discern the our personal call to suffer and face it with the wisdom God has given for our contexts. Note that the goal is not to feel pain, whether physical or phychological. The goal is to honor God by obeying him, no matter what. That was the resolve of Meshack &co. "...but even if the God we serve does not rescue us from the fiery furnace, we will not worship the image of gold" (Dan3: 17-18). It was also the resolve of Job (Job1&2). Less noticeably, it was the resolve of David when he refused to kill King Saul who had become paranoid and was trying to kill David. Rather than dishonor God by killing God's annointed king, David chose to suffer by going survive in the wilderness for many years, instead of living comfortably in his father's home.
A Christian businessman may loose a contract worth millions of Shillings just because he will not bribe. He suffers the shame, the scorn of associates, the loss of income. A student may fail an exam because he will not cheat. The single woman well in her thirties may have to turn away advances of a non-believing man in spite of social pressure and the tick of the clock. You see, the choice to suffer does not mean that you will enjoy the pain. Far from it. The pain is real and nobody wants to hurt. It just means that if the situation calls for it, for the sake of being true and faithful to the Lord, you make the hard choice, take the road less travelled and live with it because it is the only choice open to you as a Christian.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads onto way,
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in the woods and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads onto way,
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in the woods and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Poem By Robert Frost
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